Supposed Former 7th Sea Junkie

Way back in 1998 (geez, I’m old), Alanis Morissette released her follow up to Jagged Little Pill, an album that sold over 16 million copies (thus going platinum 16 times). JLP was a phenomenon, breaking records every which way. Of course, her follow up, had the impossible task of meeting the same expectations.

Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie sold 2.2 million copies worldwide on its first week of release, but was considered “a disappointment” by the record companies. The woman went double platinum in seven days and the record company was unimpressed. For her third album, they spent less money on marketing, less money on production, less money on everything because the record only sold 2.2 million copies in seven days.

I bring up this story because I was recently at a convention where someone asked me if I was disappointed in our most recent Kickstarter, 7th Sea: Khitai. I laughed and told the Alanis story. Then, I said I wasn’t disappointed because my next most successful Kickstarter raised around $40,000 (Wicked Fantasy). We beat that in the first couple of hours.

I also pointed out that we were currently one of the top five most backed RPG Kickstarter of 2017. And we aren’t even finished yet.

People asked me if I felt Khitai was a failure. I pointed at the goal and the fact we’ve raised over $100,000 more than we asked for. “Yeah,” I said sarcastically. “Total failure.”

7th Sea: Second Edition was an anomaly. We all knew that going in to Khitai. We had no idea how much Khitai would raise. Just getting to do the core book would be awesome, and everything else after that would be a bonus.

Now we know. It’s going to happen. We’ve already promised two 200 full color hardback books as supplements and we’re probably going to hit another one soon. So, no. I’m not disappointed. I’m not even surprised. I’m happy we’ll be bringing Khitai to 7th Sea fans and people who are new to the game. The writing team and I are excited and can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on.

And if I have to settle for Top 5 Best RPG Kickstarter of 2017…well, damn. I guess I’ll have to settle for that.

Hi Graham, Can you let us know which items you’re referring to? We’re shipping Kickstarter rewards all the time and it may just be that there are rewards you haven’t claimed yet in the webstore. If there’s something you’re expecting that you think should have already been shipped, drop an email to info@johnwickpresents.com and we can walk you through the coupon claim system.

My only disappointment with how the Kickstarter has gone is that it is unlikely there will ever be a Kammerra book. As an Australian, I’m used to my country getting frequently overlooked in tabletop RPGs and the few times it does feature, it’s ridiculously inaccurate. I trust the JWP team to represent countries and for a while it finally seemed that there was going to be a full book about an Australian analogue, but more importantly one that could be about the stories of Indigenous Australians, who most frequently get othered or ignored entirely.

I know that Kammerra will still be in Khitai, nobody is to blame for how it worked out and I know this isn’t the only nation that won’t get a book, but it would have been nice.

I think a lot of people look at the stretch goals and their spacing and do the reverse — they expect a $200K (or less) Kickstarter to cover an entire game line like th 7th Sea one did. And when your stretch goals seem to imply we’ll get less than 7th Sea, they see it as “disappointing”.